Yadav names slender-billed vulture chick as Jeevan

Chandigarh, Feb 22 (IANS) Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav during his visit to the Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centre in Pinjore in Haryana has named a slender-billed vulture chick as Jeevan, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) said on Wednesday.

"Jeevan -- the slender-billed vulture chick named by Hon. Bhupendra Yadavji during his visit to our Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre in Pinjore on February 20, 2023. We shall raise Jeevan at our centre, release it to the wild and fulfil the dream of our Hon. Minister," the BNHS said in a tweet.

During his visit to the centre, Yadav said the vultures may be released in the wild after breeding. He also assured technical and financial support for the development of the Jatayu Vulture Breeding Centre.

It is proposed to release oriental white-backed vultures in year 2023-24 in the wild. The released birds will be monitored closely for at least a year with satellite transmitters and will look for any behaviour problems to make sure that they adjust well to the wild conditions and there is no mortality due to diclofenac poisoning.

Thereafter the birds would be released regularly in the wild every year.

Vultures were very common in India till the 1980's. During this period, the population of the three resident Gyps species -- the oriental white-backed, the long-billed and the slender-billed -- in the country was estimated at 40 million individuals.

The overall population however crashed by over 90 per cent during the mid-90's. By 2007, 99 per cent of the three species had been wiped out.

To save them from certain extinction, the Union government's Action Plan for Vulture Conservation in India, 2020-2025 advocates the prevention of misuse of veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) by ensuring their sale only on prescription.

The vulture conservation plan with an outlay of Rs 207.50 crore, part of the Gandhinagar Declaration adopted by CMS Parties in 2020, also strongly recommends that veterinary treatment should be given only by qualified veterinarians which would prevent overuse of NSAIDs in treating livestock as toxicity of most of the drugs is dose dependent.